Tuesday, October 23, 2007

End of Parliament

The 9th Parliament is over, paving the way for general elections to be held in December 2007.

NTV Reporter Robert Nagila had a nice piece on NTV last week about the 222 vacancies in Parliament – terming them among the best jobs in Kenya. [A member of parliament gets 5 years security of tenure (while no CEO job is safe when profits fall), and millionaire status guaranteed from an annual salary of about 10 million shillings ($142,000) a year - higher than most developed countries]

Professionals of all sorts are lining up to win the seats this year - including one constituency with over 40 candidates.

Looking back over the five years past, this parliament was doomed in the public mind when upon entering the house they immediately raised (almost doubling) their salaries. And as much as they blame the media for carping on each and every salary increase, it struck a nerve with many poor Kenyans.

So, long before the government got its act together to tackle civil servants, teacher and police and other workers salaries, MP’s had already taken care of their welfare, and continued to do so as a ritual.

And for the good work they did on passing procurement and sexual offences bill, conducting a credible investigation on Anglo leasing, and constituency development funds, and 60 other bills those were overshadowed by the inter-party bickering, lack of quorum (even during passage of some said bills) and needless salary hikes. It has been estimated than over ½ of them will not make it back to parliament in 2008, and for that we hope to have a more sensible crop of leaders.

What worries me is that all the MP’s I have personally met are sensible, smart people who are professional with degrees, but when they enter the parliament a herd mentality seems to take over and you see the same people on TV spewing childish taunts and obscenities at their opponents and perceived enemies.

Other Pro’s- high self awareness- Can lump even more personal bills onto the tax payer by accepting a useless assistant minister’s post. - You get to sign a whole page in any visitors/condolence book (instead of one line)- Can use the prefix “Honorable ___ ” long after you leave parliament- groupies

Some drawbacks- Getting there is expensive and dirty which scares away many decent people. - Vehicle to parliament is called a political parties which has no purpose these, but they have to be paid to secure a certificate. - Low public esteem. - But the public/constituents, still expect MP’s to fund them since they are multi-millionaires- Stalkers

somehow i was rather happy with the 9th parliament on certain issues. 1. the increase in salaries meant that parliament will now attract highly qualified people with high integrity. also it will be very difficult and expensive to bribe these types of people.

2. in this parliament, there was very open debate and the punlic got very much inlvolved. a number of progressive bills were passed eg the CDF, sexual offences, alco blow etc

3. coalition politics and politics of horse trading and fence siting gave us a clear comparison between bribery and negotiation

Jakarumba: Wasn't that way till that damn 'Cockar Report' and the PSC came about

Odegle: The quality of private bills was higher including CDF and sexual offences. But the lack of quorum, bickering, and boring pace of the chamber is the reason (not the expensive cost) why debates are not televized

i usually do not read or comment on politics but with the way you have described the job, i want me one of the posts, then again i have to swim in the murk to get a seat, heck no, back to the grind it is for me, make them money in taxes to fund their over inflated salaries!